Reckoning
by use2b2t2
Summary: Hermione is dying and one watches while herefriends visit. A secret, no a fact is revealed and Severus Snape is humbled.


AN Hermione is dying due to injuries years later. JK owns all and I make no monies

Reckoning

He sat in the shadows as always watching her. Her Reckoning was coming and then the unwanted visitor arrived.

Harry approached Hermione smiling sadly. "Hiya." He whispered out, knowing who lurked in the shadows.

Hermione stirred and slowly woke. "Harry…" She breathed out.

Harry approached the bed his best friend laid in and fell into the chair beside it and started to speak.

"Don't" Hermione whispered out. "I don't want to hear it."

She watched him pull a hanky out of his pocket, watching him pull his glasses away to use it to wipe tears away before placing the hanky back into his robes, placing his glasses back on.

"It's unfair." He whispered out.

Hermione smiled, laying in her deathbed. "Not really Harry." She breathed out.

"After all of this time, Hermione, I can't believe he could not help you." Glancing over to a corner where he knew his once hated nemesis sat watching them. "You saved him after all."

"Harry, you know he tried everything…" Hermione began and stopped when Ron Weasley opened the door and entered.

Ron stood for a moment and moved to the chair Harry conjured up with his wand and fell heavily. "I came as soon as I heard." Grabbing Hermione's hand into his and rubbed his thumb along the back of her hand. "Is it true?" He whispered out.

Hermione smiled. "It is Ron and I have all here that love me the most. Severus, you can show yourself."

Severus moved out of the shadows and came into the light of the room, standing next to her bed, not saying a word.

"No one knows I am dying." Hermione breathed out, laying in her bed.

Severus watched the Trio together for one last time. The Dark wounds she suffered in Malfoy Manor were more than he could combat. He tried. He truly did, especially after he was told she saved him at the Shack.

"I wanted to see you two one last time." Hermione breathed out. "You with Ginny and two babes" Drawing her attention to Harry. "And Ron engaged. I wish you well." Looking to Ron.

Ron began to speak and his friend laying in the bed silenced him. "No I wish you and Lavender well."

Ron kissed her hand. "If I could trade my life for you…"

Hermione pushed herself up and reached over, silencing his words with her finger. "Fates speak out and I will not be with you. Your wife is with child…"

Ron looked to her in surprise. "No one knows that Hermione…" He whispered.

Hermione smiled. "I know Ron. Funny how I know that, because I hated Divination in school. I suppose it is because I am dying. Be well in life my friends."

"Surely something I can do Hermione." Harry moaned out. "Anything….Me….I"

"No." Hermione spoke. "You both have your lives and your children."

Severus silently watched, appreciating her tactic turning the subject of her death instead to their lives and listened as they excitedly told herof their plans.

Hermione smiled. "I'm going to rest now. Know that I will see you in the Veil when your time is come."

She watched her friends cry. "Stop it!" She admonished. "My Reckoning comes and I welcome it."

Harry and Ron watched Hermione close her eyes and Harry pulled Ron up to leave.

He paused when he felt Ron stiffen, looking to their hated ex-Professor before spitting out. "You said that you could stopper death!"

Severus crossed his arms, drawing his black robes around him and growled out with a sneer on his face. "I can only stopper Death, but I cannot prevent it!"

Harry merely nodded and drug Ron out, his friend crying, moving past his teacher murmuring his thanks as he left.

Severus moved and closed the door before taking his place beside her bed to watch her.

He watched her for hours, tossing and turning from time to time. So unfair for one so young, Dolohov's curse in the Office of Mysteries curse finally killing her after five years.

Her eyes fluttered open on focused on dark obsidian eyes. "You've been so bitter about me rescuing you yet you tried to save me." She accused, struggling to speak her words to him.

"Yes." Severus Snape whispered to her. "You've been very adamant the last two years about me."

He reached down and caressed her cheek with a long finger. "You trusted me to come back." He murmured.

Hermione leaned to his touch. "So you accept life. Your life. That helps me you know and I had those I love the most beside me." She whispered out, body beginning to shake.

He pulled her up, holding her through her death. He began to cry, silent tears falling and slipped down his shallow cheeks.

She felt the tears dropping on her face. "Are you crying for me?" She asked in wonder.

Severus held the dying witch in his arms. "I am and you are the Brightest Witch of this age. I'll meet up with you sometime Hermione Granger and tell you what I truly felt while I taught you. You said you had the most you loved beside you. Did that include me?"

He watched her smile, thinking it was the most beautiful he had ever seen. "I did and I love Harry and Ron, and love you as well Severus…If I had a future…." She replied, eyes and head rolled back in death.

He sobbed into her arms, holding the lifeless body against him and rocked against him, holding her tight.

HGSSHGSSHGSS

Severus passed to the Veil forty years later, entering and passing through those that died of the Order and looked for one person and found her, enjoying the smile she gave him.

He felt her wrap her arms around him. "You can tell me what you thought of me when alive now." She whispered in his ear.

"Oh yes, and more Hermione Granger if you allow it it." Kissing her cheek, thinking of a cottage and watched it morph before him and took her away.


End file.
